Killer Waves and Kids

One of my kids' friends was at the house the other day and I asked her about a recent birthday party she attended. Just trying to make conversation, I asked her what kind of gift she took to her friend. I learned that the friend requested items for a Samaritan's Purse shoebox.

Just in case you didn't know, shoeboxes aren't for Christmas anymore; Samaritan's Purse has been and apparently still is collecting and distributing shoeboxes (with items for children such as t-shirts, socks, washcloths, small toys, books, etc.) for those impacted by the tsunami.

I asked the young friend (she's 7) if she knew why shoeboxes were being collected but she said she didn't know. I explained to her that there was a tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

My kids knew about the world event if for no other reason that their school (the neighborhood public one) held a month-long read-a-thon to raise funds for children impacted by the tsunami. The funds ($14,000!) went to UNICEF to help buy school supplies.

This conversation reinforced a recent resolution: become more aware of world events and help my kids to be more aware of world happenings, not just the ones that make huge headlines.

Counter Model for (Internet) Research

My oldest son received an assignment for a project that required a substantial amount of research. Other classes at my son's school had a month timeline to do the project but since my son's teacher was going on leave, she decided to shorten the project a bit and change the timeline from a month to a week. Most of the information that the kids would need could be found on the Internet so certainly it wouldn't take that long for the kids, right? was the faulty reasoning.

Given that a search term that I entered just to test the wisdom of the teacher's thought process yielded 50 million, 500 thousand results, I think that more guidance on Internet research would be extremely wise.

The results of the project ranged from acceptable to disastrous, heavy on the disastrous at least from my perspective. The timeline was nearly impossible, especially for a child working alone. Here's what she didn't do (a counter model for what should be done in regards to Internet-based research):

• Ask if the kids had Internet access at home (yikes! if nothing else do this to avoid a lawsuit and of course to be fair);
• Discuss search engine types;
• Teach search techniques (e.g., explain what search terms to use and how);
• Explain how search engines rank pages;
• Teach how to distinguish a paid or sponsored search result from a non-sponsored one;
• Teach how to assess the quality, relevance, and currency of a website.

Given the time frame, she should have also:

• Provided names of sites with the type of information needed;
• Provided more names of sites with user-generated content that would allow the kids to make decisions related to the project (a hypothetical trip to another state).

Want to guarantee that kids will stumble (or crash and burn) OR get an inordinate amount of help from their parents or older siblings, the formula for disaster is just above.

examples to follow are here

I promised examples and then got too busy to give them.

But now here is one:

My 10-year-old goes outside to play with a neighbor without his jacket (during the winter; this year a mild one but still cold enough to require a coat). I don't tell him he absolutely has to wear a coat (or pants rather than shorts for that matter) but I know, I KNOW that when he gets cold, he'll come back in and get a coat. And I know that the "when" will be pretty soon.

He's not so young that going coatless for a short period of time will hurt him. But someone who saw him thought that perhaps I wasn't a good mom for intervening and forcing him to put his coat on. I think it's better for him to decide on this really low-stakes item that he needs to dress properly for the weather.


edited April 21, 2005