Mother's Choice

Quiet, safe educational environments, for girls

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:54:22 +0000

In schools and classrooms to create a “climate friendly and not discriminatory is essential to a quality learning environment. In many countries held attitudes participation of girls in education, significant barriers to the provision students a quality education more than one beneficiary.read more interesting articles about educations at Ross Global Academy. The Republic of Guinea is an example of how to begin this barrier can be overcome. Between 1989 and 1997, Guinea has managed to increase the percentage of girls in the workforce of school age by 17 percent to 37 percent. This was achieved through the establishment of an equity committee of high-level research is conducted to better understand the different needs and attitudes of communities, reforms policies related to the pregnancy of mothers of school age, construction of latrines for girls in schools, institutional reform, the increase brought more women into the teaching and administrative positions, and a campaign outreach to raise community awareness of the value of educating girls. Ross Global Academy provide hi-tech, sophisticated and modern educations for all.

Although curriculum reform and other issues remain, the act will be implemented and persistence of girls and the performance has not reached the level for boys, this case shows that the efforts for the learning environment for girls and all students improve lead to concrete results. Once the access of girls to school, but they can both direct and physical threats and attacks on their faith experience more subtle, self-esteem and identity. The way the school could be uncertain, as the victim of harassment many girls and physical aggression that Whether in public transport in cities or roads in remote rural areas. do in school, teachers often require maintenance girls, while boys study or play, and boys girls bully. The girls often on the back of the classroom where the teacher can use them rarely sit. In some cases, extreme physical violence, including rape, may be continued at school against girls. The threats in the form of unequal treatment, are bullying, harassment and under-injured girl in profound and lasting way. Find better educations program at Ross Global Academy.

Entrepreneurial effectual reasoning

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:46:23 +0000

The entrepreneurs like naveen jain worked their way through a 17-page problem set over two hours, talking aloud continuously as they each solved exactly the same ten decision problems to build a company starting with exactly the same product idea. Rigorous analyses of the transcribed tapes led to rather surprising but eminently teachable principles. This set of principles, when put together, rested on a coherent logic that clearly established the existence of a distinct form of rationality that we have all long recognized intuitively as “entrepreneurial”. For reasons that will become clear in the next section, I have termed this type of rationality “effectual reasoning”. Find out more about entrepreneurship by contacting naveen jain.

Effectual reasoning, however, does not begin with a specific goal. Instead, it begins with a given set of means and allows goals to emerge contingently over time from the varied imagination and diverse aspirations of the founders and the people they interact with. While causal thinkers are like great generals seeking to conquer fertile lands (Genghis Khan conquering two thirds of the known world), effectual thinkers are like explorers setting out on voyages into uncharted waters (Columbus discovering the new world). It is important to point out though that the same person can use both causal and effectual reasoning at different times depending on what the circumstances call for. In fact, the best entrepreneurs are capable of both and do use both modes well. Read naveen jain‘s articles about entrepreneurship. But they prefer effectual reasoning over causal reasoning in the early stages of a new venture, and arguably, most entrepreneurs do not transition well into latter stages requiring more causal reasoning.

Women and men in auto insurance

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:13:26 +0000

Economic conditions and the price of gasoline must also differentially affect the driving of women and men as two demographic groups with a large difference in income distributions. In 1990, 41 percent of women drivers drove less than 5,000 miles, while about half as many men drivers were in this low mileage category (Hu and Young, 1993, p. 3-20). Conversely, in the high mileage category, nearly 30% of men drove more than 20,000 miles while only 11% of women drove that much. The difference between the mileage distributions of women and men leaves little doubt that a greater proportion of women than men would gain a deserved and risk-based net saving from a change from per year to per mile insurance. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that it is individuals, not groups, who drive cars and that individuals respond differently to changes in the cost of driving and also to changes in economic conditions.

Current flat pricing is buttressed by strong insurer marketing mythologies. Prime examples are the selective reality of women’s greater “safety” as drivers and the statistically absurd idea that risk can be individually assessed by use of driver-record and claim-free pricing. Moreover, recent research on women drivers has sought to problematize the increase in women’s annual accident involvement, rather than to explain it as an inevitable consequence of an increase in women’s average miles of exposure to accident risk. Press releases announcing research findings generate invidious newspaper headlines like “Road hazard? Women are more accident-prone, U-M study finds” (Greenwood, 1993). more information about insurance,please visit details at http://74.200.250.2/~allidexc/blogs/onlineautoinsurance/auto_insurance_quotes_with_no_down_payment.html

Academics inexcusably ignore past criticism of the auto insurance price structure. For example, in a 1968 law and economics study, one of this year’s Nobel prize winners, William Vickrey, attempted to call attention to “the frequently overlooked fact that the manner in which premiums are computed and paid fails miserably to bring home to the automobile user the costs he imposes in a manner that will appropriately influence his decisions” (Vickrey, 1968). Subsequent scholarly indifference to this strong condemnation can only be explained in terms of protecting a subsidy for higher-mileage drivers as a politically and economically powerful group. University researchers, however, have a responsibility to set aside class and sex politics. They need to contribute constructively to an emerging and long overdue critique of the practice of charging for automobile insurance as a fixed cost of car ownership rather than as a variable cost of car use, the activity that produces traffic accidents.

Children Begin to Simulate Other Minds

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:00:06 +0000

One superpower all psychologists would kill for is the ability to read minds. Not only would it make psychology research a lot easier, we would be able to experience what it is like to be someone else – a fascinating prospect.

Although telepathy is still science fiction most of us can do something clever that, while only a pale imitation, does allow us to step inside other people’s minds in a limited way.

We can do this because our brains are fantastic simulators – we can, for example, predict the paths objects will take through space and the decisions we should make now to cause a future event. Similarly, we can put ourselves in other people’s shoes to try and imagine their thoughts, intentions and possible actions. In fact without the ability to simulate what other people are thinking we would be lost in the social world.

Theory of mind

Psychologists call this ability to simulate or work out what others are thinking ‘theory of mind’. The emergence of theory of mind in children is a vital developmental milestone; some psychologists think that a failure to develop a theory of mind is a central component of autism.

The first experiment to provide evidence about when theory of mind emerges using a test of false beliefs was carried out by Heinz Wimmer and Josef Perner from the University of Salzburg (Wimmer & Perner, 1983).

To test the emergence of ‘theory of mind’ the researchers wanted to find out whether children could pass a false belief test. To pass the test children have to understand that it’s possible for other people to hold beliefs that are different to their own. This is a surprisingly tricky task when your brain is so new it’s still under warrantee.

Test of false belief

Wimmer and Perner tested children between 3 and 9-years-old by telling them a story about a boy called Maxi whose mother had brought home some chocolate to make a cake. When she gets home Maxi sees her put the chocolate into a blue cupboard. Then Maxi goes out to play.

Meanwhile his mother uses the chocolate for the cake but happens to put it back in the green cupboard. When Maxi comes back in he feels hungry and wants some chocolate. The children in the experiment are then asked, not where the chocolate is, but which cupboard Maxi will look in.

In the experiment the story is also acted out using dolls and matchboxes to make the story explicit for the children.

Results

The results showed that 3 to 4-year-olds tended to fail the test by pointing to the actual position of the chocolate rather than where Maxi thought it was. They seemed unable to understand that although they knew where it was, Maxi didn’t.

Wimmer and Perner (1983) argued that this was because they could not construct a separate mental model of the world that represented Maxi’s experience – they weren’t capable of a theory of mind.

From about 4 to 5-years-old the situation changed dramatically. Suddenly the children tended to point to the cupboard where Maxi thought the chocolate was, rather than where they knew it was. However in some variations of the experiment children up to 5-years-old still had problems understanding someone else’s false belief.

Finally, at 6-years-old, the children did consistently understand that another person can hold a false belief about the world.

End of innocence

This experiment suggested that at about 4 to 6-years old a range of remarkable skills start to emerge in young children that are vital for their successful functioning in society. They begin to understand that others can hold false beliefs, they themselves can lie, and that others can lie to them.

From one perspective it is a sad end to innocence, but from another it is a necessary base for a skill required for social success. At around 4-years-old children are starting to understand that we don’t live out there in the world, we actually create a model of the world in our heads, a model that can easily be wrong.

Criticisms and alternative explanations

Like many child psychology studies, this experiment has sparked much debate about what its results mean. Here are some of the alternative explanations addressed by the experimenters:

Were the kids concentrating? Yes, they correctly answered questions that showed they were concentrating.
Had the younger children forgotten the story? No, they were given a memory test which they passed.
Were the younger children just pointing at where the chocolate was without thinking about the question? In another experiment children were specifically told to stop and think – this didn’t help the younger children.

While this experiment has been criticised, and other methods have been developed for examining theory of mind in children, tasks like this one are still in use around the world to this day, helping to uncover how and when we first develop the ability to understand other people’s thoughts. Get easy payment for future health with payday advance

Children Learn the Earth Isn’t Flat

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:57:32 +0000

A classic study of childhood learning suggests true understanding comes from letting go of established preconceptions.

Imagine the revelations we all once absorbed: humans are descended from apes, numbers can be usefully replaced by letters to solve problems and the Earth is (near-enough) a sphere which rotates around the sun. Despite their momentous importance for our understanding of everything around us, these facts can seem relatively trivial now, just as they were all in a day’s work when we learnt them back in school.

However obvious these ideas might seem now, there was once a time when we just didn’t get it, a time when maths was just numbers, humans were a species apart and the Earth was flat. How children revise their understanding of the world is one of the most fascinating areas of child psychology. But it is not just relevant to children; we all have to take on new concepts from time-to-time – even though they may not be as profound as the origin of the species.

It’s tempting to think that learning is largely about memory – especially since in the bad old days of education learning was largely accomplished by rote. Of course fully appreciating complex ideas is about more than just memory, it’s about understanding. But what mental processes take us from mere rote learning to genuine understanding?

A classic child psychology study carried out by Professors Stella Vosniadou and William Brewer provides a central insight into how we reach genuine understanding. They used a cognitive psychological theory called ‘mental models’ which suggests we create, and then test, mental models of the way the world works in order to build up our understanding. This theory implies there might be a series of intermediate points where we have some grasp of a concept, but it isn’t yet complete. It’s these intermediate mental models that Vosniadou and Brewer wanted to look at for evidence of understanding in progress.

What shape is the Earth?

For their study Vosniadou and Brewer (1991) interviewed sixty children who were between 6 and 11-years-old. Each was asked 48 questions, starting with the relatively innocuous: “What shape is the Earth?”, and then moving on to more probing questions designed to reveal the mental model of the Earth they were using.

While most of the children started off well by representing the Earth as a circle, it soon became clear to the researchers that children had all kinds of different mental models. When asked what would happen if you kept walking and walking for ages and ages, many replied that you would fall off, which was surprising given that they thought the Earth was a sphere. Some even said you would fall off onto another planet. Others said that while the Earth was round we live on a flat surface inside it.

At first the answers seemed rather haphazard and inconsistent, as though children were just making them up. But then, with further questioning, a clear pattern of responses began to emerge (brackets contain the number of children displaying this mental model):

Rectangular Earth: thought the Earth was a flat rectangle which you could fall off (1/60).
Disc Earth: thought the Earth was a flat disc which you could fall off (1/60).
Dual Earth: thought that one ‘Earth’ is flat which we are standing on and there is another ‘Earth’ in the sky that is round. Their answers revealed they saw the planet as flat when asked about ‘the ground’, but round when asked about ‘the Earth’ (8/60).
Hollow sphere: thought we live inside the Earth on a flat area (12/60).
Flattened sphere: thought that the Earth was a flattened sphere so that there were areas on the top (and the bottom) where people could live (4/60).
Sphere: the amount of children demonstrating the conventional view steadily increased across the age ranges examined (23/60).
Mixed models: the rest of the children either did not give consistent answers or models could not be constructed for them (11/60).

The fact that four-fifths of the children could be fitted into clearly defined categories shows how we are likely to construct the same types of mental models as each other, both accurate and inaccurate.

Understanding in progress

These results show the mind working to come to terms with a brand new concept that is fundamentally alien to the senses. Our everyday experience suggests the Earth must be flat, otherwise, as gravity pulls us down, we’d slide off it. This is our first ‘mental model’ of the Earth. Then we are taught the Earth is approximately spherical and we try to update our original model but, it appears, for a period we get stuck in between.

It’s these intermediate mental models that point to how we try to make sense of new concepts by first trying to integrate them into our current understanding in some way. The hollow sphere and the dual Earth models that children adopted are two examples of this. Both are ways of trying to hold both the flat Earth and spherical Earth models at the same time.

What was holding back the children’s learning was their presupposition, coming from everyday experience, that the Earth is flat. Until they let go of this old way of looking at the Earth, they can’t fully embrace a new view; they can only create an ugly, if occasionally ingenious, compromise. Established presuppositions from personal experience are powerful factors which are difficult to let go of, even when contradictory evidence is staring us right in the face. Sometimes real understanding is less about learning new concepts than letting go of old ones. make payment for education with payday loan

the Self Emerges

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:55:37 +0000

Most people look out for number one, themselves, which makes it strange to think that there was ever a time when we had no concept of ‘me’. A simple study dating from the early 70s suggests that before the age of around two years old we can’t recognise ourselves in the mirror. Because of this study, and the many variations that have followed, some claim that it isn’t until our second birthday that our self-concept emerges.

A smudge of rouge on the nose

In 1972 Beulah Amsterdam from the University of North Carolina published a study that has kicked-off decades of research on self-recognition (Amsterdam, 1972). The study’s procedure was simple. Infants between the ages of 6 and 24 months were placed in front of a mirror after a spot of rouge had been surreptitiously put on their noses. Then their mothers pointed to the reflection in the mirror and asked the child: “Who’s that?”. Researchers than watched infants’ behaviour.

After testing 88 infants Amsterdam could only obtain reliable data on 16 of them – infants will be infants and many didn’t want to play. From these 16 infants Amsterdam found three categories of response:

6-12 months: it’s another baby! The child behaves as though the infant in the mirror is someone else – someone they’d like to be friendly with. They display approach behaviours such as smiling and making noises.
13-24 months: withdrawal. The infants no longer seem particularly happy at catching their own image in the mirror. Some look a little wary while others will smile occasionally and make some noises. One interpretation of this behaviour is that the infants are acting self-consciously here (perhaps demonstrating self-concept), but it could also be a reaction to another child.
20-24 months onwards: it’s me! From around this age infants start to clearly recognise themselves by pointing to the spot of rouge on their own noses. This strongly suggest they have realised the image is themselves and the spot of rouge is on their own nose.

Although Amsterdam’s results were from a small sample size, they have subsequently been repeated with many more participants. Also, later studies with control conditions have found infants in this age-range don’t touch their nose if it isn’t marked with rouge. This showed that touching the nose isn’t somehow a natural reaction for infants to seeing own reflection.

Self-concept or just self-recognition?

Of course this study simplifies a mass of psychological complexity. Psychologists have raised all sorts of questions about what the mirror test reveals. It could be, for example, that infants just don’t understand faces particularly well until they are around two years old. Perhaps, then, they develop a self-concept at a much earlier stage.

Alternatively it could be that at around two years old infants develop a solid physical or visual self-concept, but still have little mental self-concept. In this case all the test is showing is that we know what we look like; perhaps we don’t develop our self-concept until much later in life.

These are just two common explanations, I’m sure you can think of more alternatives. This multitude of possibilities illustrates one of the major hurdles in child psychology: results are especially ambiguous because only limited tests can be carried out on children. Still, despite these alternatives, the mirror test has proved remarkably hardy over the years and is still used today while other tests have fallen by the wayside.

The social child

One of the reasons for its resilience is that it seems likely that self-concept might well emerge at this age from all the other things we know about children. It is from around 2 to 4 years of age that children start to display a rapid increase in their social behaviour. Being able to distinguish yourself from other people is fundamental to successful social relationships rather than simple interactions. It seems unlikely that infants would be able to build relationships with others without some limited concept of themselves The mirror test has also been used on other animals to test their self-concept, indeed the test was originally carried out on chimpanzees by Professor Gordon Gallup a few years before Amsterdam. All the great apes ‘pass’ the test, along with dolphins, whales and elephants. In one recent study an 8ft mirror was placed in the elephant enclosure at New York’s Bronx Zoo and the elephants had marks painted on their heads. Researchers who kept watch on the elephants’ reactions saw them touch the paint marks on their own heads.

It’s no coincidence that elephants, like the other animals that pass the test, have complex social systems. Basic self-recognition is key to being able to relate to others; with this knowledge infants take their first faltering steps into the social world.

Infant Memory Works From Very Early

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:52:47 +0000

Some argue it’s impossible for us to remember anything much from before around two to four years of age. Others think our memories can go way back – perhaps even to before birth. The question of ‘infantile amnesia’ is thorny because it’s hard to test whether adults’ earliest memories are real or imagined.

What psychologists have done, though, is examine the emergence of memory in our first few years with a series of now classic experiments. If memories really can be laid down early in life then it is certainly possible in theory for adults to remember very early experiences.

Getting a kick out of kicking

One classic experiment, devised by Professor Carolyn Rovee-Collier (now at Rutgers University) and colleagues in the 1960s, provides us an insight into what infants can remember. This method has produced some great evidence about how and when infants’ memories develops.

In their experiment, Rovee and Rovee (1969) had infants of between 9 and 12 weeks lay comfortably in their cribs at home looking up at a mobile covered with brightly coloured wooden figures.

A cord was then attached to their foot connecting it to the mobile. This meant that if the infants kicked out the mobile would move. And, if they kicked out hard, the wooden figures would bump into each other and make a pleasant knocking sound. The more the little kids kick, the more of a kick they get from the mobile.

If you’re starting to get a whiff of Pavlov and his salivating dog then you’re on the right lines. This experiment is all about seeing if an infant can be conditioned to kick their foot to make the mobile move. Researchers first measure infants’ baseline levels of kicking (with mobile unattached), then compare this to kicking that produces an exciting response (wow, the mobile is moving!).

What Rovee and Rovee (1969) found was that even infants as young as 8 weeks old could learn the association between kicking and the mobile movement. This learning was still evident over a 45-55 minutes period.

Early memories

While this initial finding is fairly modest, the use of this procedure has led to all sorts of new findings about infants’ memories. For example, subsequent studies have later substituted a different mobile for the original to see if the infants can spot the difference, thereby testing whether or not they really remember.

In one experiment infants only 8-weeks-old were trained with the mobile over a period of 3 days for 9 minutes each day. Twenty-four hours later the infants only kicked at above their baseline levels when the same mobile was above their heads. This showed they remembered the particular mobile they had been trained with and not just any old mobile. It was an especially exciting finding because it had previously been thought that long-term memory (and 24 hours is long-term for psychologists) didn’t emerge until as late as 8 or 9 months.

Because of this experiment and others like it, we now know much more about infant memory. Our memory systems actually work quite well from very early on. Infants’ memories also seems to work in much the same way as adult memories – it’s just that infant memories are much more fragile.

Intuitive Physicists

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:50:44 +0000

You know you’re in a dream world when the physical laws of the universe appear to have changed. When gravity has been turned off at the socket, objects seem to have no inertia and vanish when they are out of view. Dreams can be surprising and unsettling precisely because we’re so used to how the waking world works.

Perhaps young infants, brand new in the world, experience their environment as a kind of nonsensical dream in which even the simplest properties of objects surprise them. Wow, they wonder, where does the world go to when I close my eyes?

Or perhaps they do have some intuitive understanding that objects continue to exist even when they can’t be directly experienced? This is the question psychologists have been trying to answer while researching what infants in their first year of life understand about ‘object permanence’.

Object permanence

Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when we can’t actually see them. Famous Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget thought that children couldn’t properly grasp this concept until they were at least 12 months of age.

This idea was challenged by a series of studies carried out by Professor Renee Baillargeon from the University of Illinois and colleagues. These studies used children’s apparent surprise at ‘impossible’ events to try and work out whether they understood object permanence.

A blocked road

In one study infants as young as 6.5 months watched a toy car travelling down a ramp. Half way through its journey, though, it went behind a screen out of the baby’s view before exiting the other side, once more visible.

In one condition the infants saw a block placed behind the screen in the way of the toy car. And yet when the car was released, experimental trickery was used so that the block didn’t stop the car’s progress. Miraculously it still appeared from the other side of the screen.

This ‘impossible’ condition was compared with another condition where the block was placed near, but not in the way of, the car’s progress – the ‘possible’ condition.

Baillargeon found that the infants looked reliably longer at the seemingly impossible scenario. This suggested they understood that the block continued to exist despite the fact they couldn’t actually see it. They also must have understood that the car could not pass through the block. This seems like reasonable evidence that infants can understand object permanence.

Simple explanation

In further studies Professor Baillargeon tested all sorts of variations on this theme. Toy rabbits, toy mice and carrots were all used, with some defying the laws of nature in the ‘impossible’ conditions and others studiously following them in the ‘possible’ conditions. Each time, though, infants looked longer at the apparently impossible events, perhaps wondering if they were dreaming.

These studies have now shown that infants as young as 3.5 months seem to have a basic grasp of object permanence. While others have argued for alternative explanations and interpretations, when all these studies are taken together the idea that children understand object permanence is arguably the simplest explanation.

Intuitive physicists

Using these results Baillargeon and others have argued that young infants are not necessarily trapped in a world of shapes which have little meaning for them. Instead they seem to be intuitive physicists who can carry out rudimentary reasoning about physical concepts like gravity, inertia and object permanence.

So, perhaps infants don’t perceive the world as a completely nonsensical dream. Sure, they have many new things to learn and many things surprise them, but they do seem to understand some fundamentals about how the world works from very early on.

First Mom’s Challenge

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:23:21 +0000

Being a mother for the first time is not easy, actually you will find that there’s a lot of things happen at that time. Morning sickness, certain food eagerness, all of them are difficult to experience for the first time. You might need a doula for this. A doula is someone who undergoes special training to enable them to support women during childbirth and into the postpartum period. That kind of informations are needed urgently.

But internet has provide lots of solutions for your first mum’s problems. You can check out http://www.babiesbase.com for the start. They have lots information such as doula (mentioned above). The articles are good and directly overcome your problems. Here are some article’s titles you can find on the site:

How To Care For A Pregnancy With High Blood Pressure

Put Your Health First Before You Choose Baby Names

Morning sickness Prevention: Taking Care of Yourself Helps

Gestational Diabetes – Diabetes and Pregnancy

and there are lot more, and you can choose your problem solution by categories those help and guide you with correct steps. There are also experiences from other mums those written will help you as good as the forum does. It’s our obligation to choose wisely and our babies are worthy to get it.

Easy Way To Find A Web Host

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:13:28 +0000

Hosting plays an important role when you launch a website. Without hosting there is no value for the website and if you wanted your website among the best on the internet then choosing the exact hosting service provider is the best option. Finding the best hosting service provider is the difficult part when you plan to launch your website and to know details regarding the various services the service providers offer, the cost each on offer, the types of hosting etc by doing a research is really impossible and needs lot of time and effort. The best thing in finding the hosting service provider is to visit the website called webhostingrating.com.

This is one among the top hosting service providers over the internet who offers customers with relevant web hosting information and other details regarding the hosting programs. The best part of this website is the ranking system which they provide for their customers. This unique ranking option provided by this website offers the chance of choosing the best hosting service provider who can full fill their budget as well as their requirements of the customers. This website ranks the hosting service providers by taking into consideration some of the basic parameters such as the types of service offered, the technology which they support, the cost, the customer service etc. You can also find reviews in this website and it’s known for the collection of these reviews on different aspects such as dedicated hosting reviews, dedicated hosting reviews, website news etc.

Easy Comparisons Of Car Rentals

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:06:10 +0000

The spurt in rent a car UK services has helped visitors going to UK for holidays and on business, save substantially in their spending on the car rentals. The wise visitors thus try to compare the facilities offered and the rates charged by each of the car hire portals to source the best bargain. The disadvantage here is that they do not know the leading rental firms in UK, other than a few with international standing. Of course the other disadvantage is the hours spent on sourcing and tabulating the results made after browsing the different sites. To eliminate these two handicaps, 121carhireuk.com has easy comparison tools to compare the rates of the various leading car hire companies.

Thus the visitors by login to 121carhireuk.com and submitting details about their journey dates and destinations instantly get the comparative statement of the different car hire services to enable them to quickly zero-in on the suitable service. Now with easy online comparisons and online bookings, one is able to rent a car Belfast City Airport, in advance. The comparison is a comprehensive one as it takes care about the details of the facilities to make a meaningful comparison. The comparison includes nearly top 40 car rental services, which makes the visitor breath easy with the thought that he is hiring the services of a reputed company. The visitor need not have doubts about the safe online transactions with the car rental company and could feel assured about the condition of the car provided for hire.

Language and General Knowledge

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:43:44 +0000

Children can develop language skills
only if they have many opportunities
to talk, listen and use
language to solve problems and
learn about the world.
Long before your child enters
school, you can do many things to
help her develop language. You can:
★ Give your child opportunities to play. Play is how children learn. It
is the natural way for them to explore, to become creative, to learn
to make up and tell stories and to develop social skills. Play also
helps children learn to solve problems—for example, if her wagon
tips over, a child must figure out how to get it upright again. When
they stack up blocks, children learn about colors, numbers,
geometry, shapes and balance. Playing with others helps children
learn how to negotiate.
★ Support and guide your child as she learns a new activity. Parents
can help children learn how to do new things by “scaffolding,” or
guiding their efforts. For example, as you and your toddler put
together a puzzle, you might point to a piece and say, “I think this is
the piece we need for this space. Why don’t you try it?” Then have
the child pick up the piece and place it correctly. As the child
becomes more aware of how the pieces fit into the puzzle, you can
gradually withdraw your support.

★ Talk to your child, beginning at birth. Your baby needs to hear your
voice. Voices from a television or radio can’t take the place of your
voice, because they don’t respond to your baby’s coos and babbles.
Your child needs to know that when he makes a certain sound, for
example, “mamamamamama,” that his mother will respond—she
will smile and talk back to him. The more you talk to your baby,
the more he will learn and the more he will have to talk about as
he gets older.
Everyday activities provide opportunities to talk, sometimes in detail,
about what’s happening around him. As you give your child a bath, for
example, you might say, “First let’s stick the plug in the drain. Now let’s
turn on the water. Do you want your rubber duck?
That’s a good idea. Look, the duck is yellow, just
like the rubber duck we saw on ‘Sesame
Street.’”

★ Listen to your child.
Children have their own
special thoughts and feelings,
joys and sorrows, hopes and
fears. As your child’s language
skills develop, encourage her
to talk about her thoughts and
feelings. Listening is the best
way to learn what’s on her
mind and to discover what she knows and
doesn’t know and how she thinks and learns. It also shows your
child that her feelings and thoughts are valuable

★ Ask your child questions,
particularly questions that
require him to give more
than a “yes” or “no”
response. If, as you walk
with your toddler in a park,
he stops to pick up leaves,
you might point out how
the leaves are the same and
how they are different.
With an older child, you might ask, “What else grows on trees?”
★ Answer your child’s questions. Asking questions is a good way for
your child to learn to compare and to classify things—different kinds
of dogs, different foods and so forth. Answer your child’s questions
thoughtfully and, whenever possible, encourage her to answer her
own questions. If you don’t know the answer to a question, say so.
Together with your child, try to find the answer.
★ Read aloud to your child every day. Children of all ages love to be
read to—even babies as young as six weeks. Although your child
doesn’t understand the story or poem that you read, reading together
gives her a chance to learn about language
and enjoy the sound of your voice. You
don’t have to be an excellent reader for
your child to enjoy reading aloud
together. Just by allowing her to connect
reading with the warm experiences of
being with you, you can create in her a
lifelong love of reading

★ Be aware of your child’s television viewing. Good television programs
can introduce children to new worlds and promote learning, but poor
programs or too much TV watching can be harmful. It’s up to you to
decide how much TV and what kinds of shows your child should
watch. (See Taking Charge of TV, page 52.)
★ Be realistic about your child’s abilities and interests. Set high
standards and encourage your child to try new things. Children who
aren’t challenged become bored. But children who are pushed along
too quickly or who are asked to do things that don’t interest them
can become frustrated and unhappy.
★ Provide opportunities for your child to do and see new things. The
more varied the experiences that she has, the more she will learn
about the world. No matter where you live, your community can
provide new experiences. Go for walks in your neighborhood or
go places on the bus. Visit museums, libraries, zoos and other
places of interest.

Social and Emotional Preparation

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:40:26 +0000

Children start school with different degrees of social and emotional
maturity. These qualities take time and practice to learn. Give your child
opportunities at home to begin to develop the following positive qualities.
★ Confidence: Children must feel good about themselves and believe
they can succeed. Confident children are more willing to attempt
new tasks—and try again if they don’t succeed the first time.
★ Independence: Children must learn to do things for themselves.
★ Motivation: Children must want to learn

★ Curiosity: Children are naturally
curious and must remain so to get the
most out of learning opportunities.
★ Persistence: Children must learn to
finish what they start.
★ Cooperation: Children must be able to
get along with others and learn to share and take turns.
★ Self-control: Children must learn that there are good and bad ways
to express anger. They must understand that some behaviors, such as
hitting and biting, are not acceptable.
★ Empathy: Children must have an interest in others and understand
how others feel.
Here are some things that you can do to help your child develop these qualities.
★ Show your child that you care about him and that you are dependable.
Children who feel loved are more likely to be confident. Your child
must believe that, no matter what, someone
will look out for him. Give your baby or
toddler plenty of attention, encouragement,
hugs and lap time.
★ Set a good example. Children imitate what
they see others do and what they hear
others say. When you exercise and eat
nourishing food, your child is more likely to
do so as well. When you treat others with
respect, your child probably will, too. If you
share things with others, your child also will
learn to be thoughtful of others’ feelings.

★ Provide opportunities for repetition. It takes practice for a child to
crawl, pronounce new words or drink from a cup. Your child doesn’t
get bored when she repeats things. Instead, by repeating things until
she learns them, your child builds the confidence she needs to try
new things.
★ Use appropriate discipline. All children need to have limits set for them.
Children whose parents give them firm but loving discipline generally
develop better social skills and do better in school than do children
whose parents set too few or too many limits. Here are some ideas.
★ Direct your child’s activities, but don’t be too bossy.
★ Give reasons when you ask your child to do something. Say, for
example, “Please move your truck from the stairs so no one falls
over it”—not, “Move it because I said so.”
★ Listen to your child to find out how he feels and whether he
needs special support.
★ Show love and respect when you are
angry with your child. Criticize your
child’s behavior but not the child. Say,
for example, “I love you, but it’s not
okay for you to draw pictures on the
walls. I get angry when you do that.”
★ Help your child make choices and work
out problems. You might ask your 4-
year-old, for example, “What can we do
to keep your brother from knocking over your blocks?”
★ Be positive and encouraging. Praise your child for a job well done.
Smiles and encouragement go much further to shape good
behavior than harsh punishment.

★ Let your child do many things by herself. Young
children need to be watched closely. However,
they learn to be independent and to develop
confidence by doing tasks such as dressing
themselves and putting their toys away. It’s
important to let your child make choices, rather
than deciding everything for her.
★ Encourage your child to play with other children and to be with
adults who are not family members. Preschoolers need social
opportunities to learn to see the point of view of others. Young
children are more likely to get along with teachers and classmates if
they have had experiences with different adults and children.
★ Show a positive attitude toward learning and toward school.
Children come into this world with a powerful need to discover and
to explore. If your child is to keep her curiosity, you need to
encourage it. Showing enthusiasm for what your child does (“You’ve
drawn a great picture!”) helps to make her proud of her
achievements.
Children also become excited about starting school when their parents
show excitement about this big step. As your child gets ready to enter
kindergarten, talk to him about school. Talk about the exciting things that
he will do in kindergarten, such as making art projects, singing and
playing games. Be enthusiastic as you describe all the important things
that he will learn from his teacher—how to read, how to how to count
and how to measure and weigh things.

Good Health and Physical Well-Being

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:34:33 +0000

Seeing to it that your preschool child has nutritious food, enough
exercise and regular medical care gives him* a good start in life and lessens the chances that he will have serious health problems or trouble learning later on.

Food
Preschoolers require a healthy diet. After your child is born, she requires nutritious food to keep her healthy. School-aged children can concentrate better in class if they eat balanced meals that include servings of breads and cereals; fruits and vegetables; meat, poultry and fish and meat alternatives (such as eggs and dried beans
and peas); and milk, cheese and yogurt. You should see to it that your child does not eat too many fatty foods and sweets.
Children aged 2–5 generally can eat the same foods as adults but in smaller portions. Your child’s doctor or medical clinic adviser can provide you with advice on what to feed a baby or a toddler who under the age of 2.

If you need food for your child, federal, state and local programs can help.
For example, the federal nutrition program, called the Special
Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC),
distributes food to low-income women and their children across the
country. Food stamp programs also are available. If you want more
information or want to find out if you are eligible for food stamps, call or
visit your local or state health department. Your local librarian can help
you find names, addresses and phone numbers.

Exercise
Preschoolers need opportunities to exercise. To learn to control and
coordinate the large muscles in his arms and legs, your child needs to
throw and catch balls, run, jump, climb and dance to music. To learn to
control and coordinate the small muscles in his hands and fingers, he
needs to color with crayons, put together puzzles, use blunt-tipped—
safety—scissors, zip his jacket and grasp small objects such as coins.
If you suspect that your child has a disability, see a doctor as soon as
possible. Early intervention can help your child to develop to his full
potential.

Medical Care
Preschoolers require regular medical checkups, immunizations and dental
care. It’s important for you to find a doctor or a clinic where your child
can receive routine health care as well as special treatment if
she becomes sick or injured.
Early immunizations can help prevent a number of diseases
including measles, mumps, German measles (rubella),
diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hib (Haemophilus
influenzae type b), polio and tuberculosis. These diseases
can have serious effects on your child’s physical and
mental development. Talk to your doctor about the
benefits and risks of immunization.*
Beginning by the age of 3 at the latest, your child also should have regular
dental checkups.

preschool child

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:33:18 +0000

Scientists who study how the brain works have shown that children learn
earlier—and learn more—than we once thought possible. From birth
through age 5, children are developing the language, thinking, physical,
emotional and social skills that they will need for the rest of their lives.
This booklet is for families and caregivers who want to help their
preschool children to learn and to develop the skills necessary for success
in school—and in life.
The booklet begins with information that will help you prepare your child
to learn and to get ready for school. The major portion of the booklet
contains simple activities that you can use with your child. These activities
are only a starting point. We hope that you and your child will enjoy
them enough to create and try many more on your own.
In addition, the booklet provides suggestions for how to monitor your
child’s TV viewing and to choose good TV programs and videos and how
to choose suitable child care. It also provides a checklist to guide you as
you prepare your child to enter kindergarten.
As a parent, you can help your child want to learn in a way no one else
can. That desire to learn is a key to your child’s later success. Enjoyment is
important! So, if you and your child don’t enjoy one activity, move on to
another. You can always return to any activity later on.

Encourage Your Child to Be Responsible and to Work Independently

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:10:24 +0000

Taking responsibility and working independently are important qualities for school
success. Here are some suggestions for helping your child to develop these qualities:
*| Establish rules. Every home needs reasonable rules that children know and can
depend on. Have your child help you to set rules, then make sure that you enforce the
rules consistently.

*| Make it clear to your child that he has to take responsibility for what he does, both at
home and at school. For example, don’t automatically defend your child if his teacher
tells you that he is often late to class or is disruptive when he is in class. Ask for his
side of the story. If a charge is true, let him take the consequences.

*| Work with your child to develop a reasonable, consistent schedule of jobs to do
around the house. List them on a calendar. Younger children can help set the table or
put away their toys and clothes. Older children can help prepare meals and clean up
afterwards.

*| Show your child how to break a job down into small steps, then to do the job one step
at a time. This works for everything—getting dressed, cleaning a room or doing a big
homework assignment.

*| Make your child responsible for getting ready to go to school each morning—getting
up on time, making sure that he has everything he needs for the school day and so
forth. If necessary, make a checklist to help him remember what he has to do.

*| Monitor what your child does after school, in the evenings and on weekends. If you
can’t be there when your child gets home, give her the responsibility of checking in
with you by phone to discuss her plans.

Encourage Your Child to Use the Library

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:06:47 +0000

Libraries are places of learning and discovery for everyone. Helping your child find out
about libraries will set him on the road to being an independent learner. Here are some
suggestions for how to help:
*| Introduce your child to the library as early as possible. Even when your child is a
toddler, take him along on weekly trips to the library. If you work during the day or
have other obligations, remember that many libraries are open in the evening.
• If your child can print his name, it is likely that your library will issue him a library
card if you will also sign for him. See that your child gets his own library card as
soon as possible so that he can check out his own books.

*| When you take your child to the library, introduce yourself and your child to the
librarian. Ask the librarian to show you around the library and tell you about the
services it has to offer. For example, in addition to all kinds of books, your library
most likely will have magazines of interest to both your child and to you. It will likely
have newspapers from many different places. Most libraries also have tapes and CDs
of books, music CDs and tapes, movies on video and on DVD and many more
resources. Your library also might have books in languages other than English or
programs to help adults improve their English reading skills

Ask the librarian to tell your child about special programs that he might participate in,
such as summer reading programs and book clubs and about services such as
homework help.

*| Let your child know that she must follow the library’s rules of behavior. Libraries
want children to use their materials and services. However, they generally have rules
such as the following that your child needs to know and obey:
—Library materials must be handled carefully.
—Materials that are borrowed must be returned on time. Your child needs to learn
how long she can keep materials and what the fine will be for materials that are
returned late.
—All library users need to be considerate of each other. Shouting, running and being
disruptive are not appropriate library behaviors.

Monitor TV Viewing and Video Game Playing

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:04:11 +0000

American children on average spend far more time watching TV or playing video games
than they do completing homework or other school-related activities. Here are some
suggestions for helping your child to use TV and video games wisely:
*| Limit the time that you let your child watch TV. Too much television cuts into
important activities in a child’s life, such as reading, playing with friends and talking
with family members.
*| Model good TV viewing habits. Remember that children often imitate their parents’
behavior. Children who live in homes in which parents and other family members watch a lot of TV are likely to spend their time in the same way. Children who live in
homes in which parents and other family members have “quiet” time away from the
TV when they read (either alone to each other), talk to each other, play games or
engage in other activities tend to do the same

*| Watch TV with your child when you can. Talk with him about what you see. Answer
his questions. Try to point out the things in TV programs that are like your child’s
everyday life.
*| When you can’t watch TV with your child, spot check to see what she’s watching.
Ask questions after the program ends. See what excites her and what troubles her.
Find out what she has learned and remembered.

*| Go to the library and find books that explore the themes of the TV shows that your
child watches.
*| Limit the amount of time your child spends playing video games. As with TV
programs, be aware of the games he likes to play and discuss his choices with him.

Monitor Homework

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:58:38 +0000

Let your child know that you think education is important and so homework has to be
done. Here are some ways to help your child with homework:

*| Have a special place for your child to study. The homework area doesn’t have to be
fancy. A desk in the bedroom is nice, but for many children, the kitchen table or a
corner of the living room works just fine. The area should have good lighting and it
should be fairly quiet. Provide supplies and identify resources. For starters, have
available pencils, pens, erasers, writing paper and a dictionary. Other supplies that
might be helpful include a stapler, paper clips, maps, a calculator, a pencil sharpener,
tape, glue, paste, scissors, a ruler, a calculator, index cards, a thesaurus and an
almanac. If possible, keep these items together in one place. If you can’t provide your
child with needed supplies, check with her teacher, school counselor or principal
about possible sources of assistance.

*| Set a regular time for homework. Having a regular time to do homework helps
children to finish assignments. Of course, a good schedule depends in part on your
child’s age, as well as her specific needs. You’ll need to work with a young child to
develop a schedule. You should give your older child the responsibility for making up
a schedule independently—although you’ll want to make sure that it’s a workable
one. You may find it helpful to have her write out her schedule and put it in a place
where you’ll see it often, such as on the refrigerator.
*| Remove distractions. Turn off the TV and discourage your child from making and
receiving social telephone calls during homework time. (A call to a classmate about
an assignment, however, may be helpful.) If you live in a small or noisy household,
try having all family members take part in a quiet activity during homework time.
You may need to take a noisy toddler outside or into another room to play. If
distractions can’t be avoided, your child may want to complete assignments in the
local library.
*| Don’t expect or demand perfection. When your child asks you to look at what she’s
done—from skating a figure 8 to finishing a math assignment—show interest and
praise her when she’s done something well. If you have criticisms or suggestions,
make them in a helpful way.
One final note: You may be reluctant to help your child with homework because you feel
that you don’t know the subject well enough or because you don’t speak or read English
as well as your child. But helping with homework doesn’t mean doing the homework. It
isn’t about solving the problems for your child, it’s about supporting him to do his best.
You may not know enough about a subject such as calculus to help your child with a
specific assignment, but you can help nonetheless by showing that you are interested,
helping him get organized, providing a place the materials he needs to work, monitoring
his work to see that he completes it and praising his efforts.

Talk with Your Child

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:54:25 +0000

Talking and listening play major roles in children’s school success. It’s through hearing
parents and family members talk and through responding to that talk that young children
begin to pick up the language skills they will need if they are to do well. For example,
children who don’t hear a lot of talk and who aren’t encouraged to talk themselves often
have problems learning to read, which can lead to other school problems. In addition,
children who haven’t learned to listen carefully often have trouble following directions
and paying attention in class.
Think of talking with your child as being like a tennis game with words—instead of a
ball—bouncing back and forth. Find time to talk any place, for example:
*| As you walk with your child or ride with her in a car or on a bus, talk with her about
what she’s doing at school Ask her to tell you about a school assembly or a field trip.
Point out and talk about things that you see as you walk—funny signs, new cars,
interesting people.
*| As you shop in a store, talk with your child about prices, differences in brands and
how to pick out good vegetables and fruit. Give your child directions about where to
find certain items, then have him go get them.

*| As you fix dinner, ask your child to help you follow the steps in a recipe. Talk with
him about what can happen if you miss a step or leave out an ingredient.
*| As you fix a sink or repair a broken table, ask your child to hand you the tools that
you name. Talk with her about each step you take to complete the repair. Tell her
what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Ask her for suggestions about how you
should do something.
*| As you watch TV together, talk with your child about the programs. If you’re
watching one of her favorite programs, encourage her to tell you about the
background of the characters, which ones she likes and dislikes and who the actors
are. Compare the program to a program that you liked when you were her age.

*| As you read a book with your child, pause occasionally to talk to him about what’s
happening in the book. Help him to relate the events in the book to events in his life:
“Look at that tall building! Didn’t we see that when we were in Chicago?” Ask him to
tell in his own words what the book was about. Ask him about new words in a book
and help him to figure out what they mean.
It’s also important for you to show your child that you’re interested in what he has to say.
Demonstrate for him how to be a good listener:

*| When your child talks to you, stop what you’re doing and pay attention. Look at him
and ask questions to let him know that you’ve heard what he said: “So when are you
going to help your granddad work on his car?”
*| When your child tells you about something, occasionally repeat what he says to let
him know that you’re listening closely: “The school bus broke down twice!”

Encourage Your Child to Read

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:51:34 +0000

Helping your child become a reader is the single most important thing that you can do to
help the child to succeed in school—and in life. The importance of reading simply can’t
be overstated. Reading helps children in all school subjects. More important, it is the key
to lifelong learning. Here are some tips on how to help your child become a reader.
*| Start early. When your child is still a baby, reading aloud to him* should become part
of your daily routine. At first, read for no more than a few minutes at a time, several
times a day. As your child grows older, you should be able to tell if he wants you to
read for longer periods. As you read, talk with your child. Encourage him to ask
questions and to talk about the story. Ask him to predict what will come next. When
your child begins to read, ask him to read to you from books or magazines that he
enjoys.
*| Make sure that your home has lots of reading materials that are appropriate for your
child. Keep books, magazines and newspapers in the house. Reading materials don’t
have to be new or expensive. You often can find good books and magazines for your
child at yard or library sales. Ask family members and friends to consider giving your
child books and magazine subscriptions as gifts for birthdays or other special
occasions. Set aside quiet time for family reading. Some families even enjoy reading
aloud to each other, with each family member choosing a book, story, poem or article
to read to the others.
*| Show that you value reading. Let your child see you reading for pleasure as well as
for performing your routine activities as an adult—reading letters and recipes,
directions and instructions, newspapers, computer screens and so forth. Go with her
to the library and check out books for yourself. When your child sees that reading is
important to you, she is likely to decide that it’s important to her, too.

*| Get help for your child if he has a reading problem. When a child is having reading
difficulties, the reason might be simple to understand and deal with. For example,
your child might have trouble seeing and need glasses or he may just need more help
with reading skills. If you think that your child needs extra help, ask his teachers
about special services, such as after-school or summer reading programs. Also ask
teachers or your local librarian for names of community organizations and local
literacy volunteer groups that offer tutoring services.
The good news is that no matter how long it takes, most children can learn to read.
Parents, teachers and other professionals can work together to determine if a child has
a learning disability or other problem and then provide the right help as soon as
possible. When a child gets such help, chances are very good that she will develop the
skills she needs to succeed in school and in life. Nothing is more important than your
support for your child as she goes through school. Make sure she gets any extra help
she needs as soon as possible and always encourage her and praise her efforts.

The Basics for succeed

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:29:27 +0000

Every child has the power to succeed in school and in life and every parent, family
member and caregiver can help. The question is: How can we help our children succeed?
The answer comes from a combination of common sense and research about how
children learn and about how to prepare them to learn.
We know, for example, that children tend to do the same things as their parents do. What
we say and do in our daily lives can help them to develop positive attitudes toward school
and learning and to build confidence in themselves as learners. Showing our children that
we both value education and use it in our daily lives provides them with powerful models
and contributes greatly to their success in school.
As our children’s first and most important teacher, it’s important that all parents build
and keep strong ties to our children’s schools. When parents and families are involved in
their children’s schools, the children do better and have better feelings about going to
school. We help our children to succeed by working with teachers to make sure that they
provide curricula and use teaching methods that are based on strong scientific evidence
about what works best in helping students to learn.
The purpose of this booklet is to make available to you information that you can use to
help your child to succeed in school. The booklet includes
ß information about things that you can do at home to contribute to your child’s
school success;
ß activities that you can use to help your child acquire the skills to succeed in
school;
ß answers to often-asked questions about how to work with teachers and schools;
and
ß tips on how to help your child with test taking

If you think about it, although school is very important, it does not really take up very
much of a child’s time. In the United States, the school year averages 180 days; in other
nations, the school year can last up to 240 days and students are often in school more
hours per day than American students. Clearly, the hours and days that a child is not in
school are important for learning, too. Here are some things that you can do to help your
child to make the most of that time