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As both parents and teachers, we are surrounded by societal expectations around the social capacities of our children. How do we prepare the children for the world in which they live, giving them age appropriate guidance that meets their needs? How do we develop the virtues of generosity and compassion that make us fully human? How do we meet conflict healthily in our both conflict ridden and conflict averse world?

Social Development in the Very Young Child | Waldorf Today

mykidsreallyeatthis

A Rebuttal- Cult of Organics

The other week I read a post on BlogHer called The Cult of Organics. Although I consider myself a The other week I read a post on BlogHer called The Cult of Organics. Although I consider myself a moderate voice when it comes to food politics and beliefs, I still took umbrage with it. I’m sorry that the author got condescending reactions to her food choices, but I believe there are plenty of good/viable reasons to choose organic foods– some of the time. Money is an issue for me but I still buy organic milk. I buy organic strawberries. But, I don’t buy only organic foods. I choose which foods I buy that don’t need to be organic and those which do. I might pay more for some of these choices, but it’s a price I’ll pay now so my children don’t need to pay it later with their health. I guess I also consider myself a “food snob” because I care about and enjoy food; it’s a big part of my life. I am not part of a cult but an informed consumer, who is concerned for the long-term effects of pesticides, over use of antibiotics and uncertainty of GMOs on my children’s well-being.

It may be surprising, but I am also the mom who allows my kids junk food, occasionally, and I let them drink a soda when at a party, and I also throw a frozen pizza in the oven when I need to.

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crunchyparenting

Ditto.

At TEDxRainier, Patricia Kuhl shares astonishing findings about how babies learn one language over another -- by listening to the humans around them and "taking statistics" on the sounds they need to know. Clever lab experiments (and brain scans) show how 6-month-old babies use sophisticated reasoning to understand their world.

#babies #learning #language #linguistics #ted

humansofnewyork

I photographed the little guy on the left because he was carrying a violin. During the post photo interview, his little brother kept chiming in with his own answers. It was clear that he wanted to be part of the process. After a few questions, the older one called to his brother: “Come be in my picture, Riley.”

#siblings

Other research has shown that triclosan acts like a hormone disruptor in animals. Once triclosan moves from bathroom drains to lakes and rivers, it also breaks down into dioxins, which can cause all sorts of health problems, including birth defects and cancer. And a 2006 study in Sweden found triclosan in breast milk at higher concentrations in women who used soap, deodorant or toothpaste that contained the chemical.

Why You Should Skip Sanitizer, Just Wash Hands

#health #triclosan #hand sanitizer

A Mighty Girl's top picks of books starring Independent Princesses. These princesses are smart, daring, and aren't waiting around to be rescued - more than likely, they'll be doing the rescuing themselves! Fans of independent princesses will also appreciate our collection of girl-empowering dolls, which includes several of the princesses depicted in these stories, as well as our collection of dress-up clothing which features several independent princess outfits. Our clothing section also features a Princess Alternative section with shirts depicting both independent princesses and alternative princess themes. For a diverse selection of more empowering fairy tales, visit our Fairy Tale & Folklore Collection.

Merida was the princess that countless girls and their parents were waiting for -- a strong, confident, self-rescuing princess ready to set off on her...

Marin filmmaker Brenda Chapman, who won an Oscar for writing and co-directing the animated feature "Brave," blasted Disney

There are myriad options for buying ethically, locally, lovingly made clothes for babies and children today, especially online. Here are some of our favourites

Will our kids be a different species from us? via TED

#children #learning

latimes

Transitioning from L.A. Times reporter to fruit picker

Hector Becerra set his reporting notebook aside, laced up his boots and strode out into the strawberry fields of Santa Maria, Calif. to see firsthand what it was like to be a fieldworker.

About an hour into the picking, my upper and lower back were beginning to tighten and my legs began to burn a little from the stooping.

As the other workers pulled ahead, Becerra gained a new appreciation for their daily struggle, and for the little things about the agricultural assembly line that often go unnoticed when you’re browsing through the aisles.

You might think strawberries are carefully sorted — possibly by a machine — into the clamshells you buy at the supermarket after being washed at some facility. They’re not. The strawberries are picked by fieldworkers and placed directly into those containers.

Read his compelling account in our latest Column One feature.

Photos: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

A new study published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology called Evaluating the Effect of Educational Media Exposure on Aggression in Early Childhood (see citation at end of article) concludes that young children have such short attention spans, that even while watching educational television shows, they cannot always focus and comprehend the entirety of a show. When characters are unkind to one-another during the program, a young children will remember the unkind exchange, but may not possess enough scope to connect the apology at the end of the episode to the unkind exchange at the beginning of the program. Toddlers and preschools make focus on unkind phrases or aggressive exchanges made by the heroic, protagonist characters and mimic them instead.

Short Attention Spans = Mimicking the Good and the Bad

#children #comprehension #television #books

Sir Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity. via TED

#schools #children #learning #creativity

In this new, highly anticipated update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series, the first in more than a decade, Jean Kilbourne takes a fresh look at how advertising traffics in distorted and destructive ideals of femininity. The film marshals a range of new print and television advertisements to lay bare a stunning pattern of damaging gender stereotypes -- images and messages that too often reinforce unrealistic, and unhealthy, perceptions of beauty, perfection, and sexuality. By bringing Kilbourne's groundbreaking analysis up to date, Killing Us Softly 4 stands to challenge a new generation of students to take advertising seriously, and to think critically about popular culture and its relationship to sexism, eating disorders, and gender violence.

#media #advertising #women

Apples and especially pears are vulnerable to a nasty bacterial infection called fire blight that, left unchecked, can spread quickly, killing fruit trees and sometimes devastating whole orchards.

"It's basically like a gangrene of your limbs. It's hard to stop" once it takes hold, says Ken Johnson, a plant pathologist at Oregon State University.

It's such a big threat that for decades, growers have seen two antibiotics, streptomycin and oxytetracycline, as vital weapons in the fight to control the disease — even on organic apples and pears.

But their use has raised questions about transparency in organic labeling, amid concerns about the overuse of antibiotics in food production.

#food #health #organic #antibiotics #food labeling

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