Tech Ed 4 Kids Partners with Parents, Students, and Teachers to Measurably Propel Student Achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
2013 KY FIRST LEGO League Championship Results
Click on this link to see the complete list of the team awards from the 2013 KY-FLL State Championships, along with the judges’ comments. Congrats to all the participants. YOU ARE ALL WINNERS even if the judges were not able to single you out for a specific award. http://orgs.wku.edu/kyfll/news/images/2013-championship-awards.pdf
– Keith Lancaster
KY FIRST LEGO League Facebook group
More Pictures and Information are available
Congratulations to All the Teams!
Smart PJs
The morning news just showed smart PJs – pajamas for bedtime stories. The $25 Smart PJ’s,which are available in pink and blue, have 47 colorful dot patterns that work with an app. When a camera on a tablet or phone is held over the dots, the app will launch an interactive bedtime story or show other types of educational content, including photos of animals or objects.
From what I can tell they use technology like QR codes to allow your smart phone to scan the dots on the pajamas and pull up information. – The QR Code to the left pulls up Googles web site but could easily be set up to pull up any page that I would have liked. To create your own QR Code you can use the website – http://www.qrstuff.com/index.html – QR Codes can be included on business cards, screen printed on shirts, or even shown with a projector and scanned with your smart phone.
The real question though is should kids be taking a smart phone to bed and pulling up their own bedtime stories? In some ways this is great, kids get the fun of playing with technology and improve their reading – but they are missing out on that family time that is so important.
Cell Phones: Too Young?
How young is too young?
My kids got cell phones fairly early. Not 2 years old, but they were not yet in middle school.
Picture of a Cell Phone (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When we got the each child a cell phone it seemed like a great idea. We have since gotten rid of our land line making it more important in my mind for the kids to have a way to keep in touch when they are home along. Now with a younger child I won’t hire a babysitter without a cellphone since we don’t have a phone in the house while we are out.
I remember with our oldest we broke down and got a phone when his class was taking field trips and he began doing more after school activities. We sent the boys to a private school and they frequently got home late at night with no access to the school – there was also no bus transportation, so with a cell phone he was able to let us know about 30 minutes before they got back that they were almost home. We lived about 30 minutes from the school so it worked out perfect! There were frequently parents with phones that they could borrow, but this way I knew there was no question of being able to reach my child at any point. As he became more involved in activities, his phone became more important to stay in touch. I’ll admit I wasn’t too happy to get a text from upstairs asking for a sandwich, but it’s still nice to get a message once in a while that he’s still doing ok and thinking of me. He moved away to a science and math school his Junior year of High School and his cell phone was his best way to stay in touch.
My middle son fought us on getting a phone. He still hardly uses his phone and is currently 16. He was just starting middle school when we got him a tracfone. Our thought was that if he lost it, we weren’t really out anything. He used it rarely, but it did come in handy when he was on field trips. Now that he is starting to drive I’m hoping he will at least remember to take his phone with him just in case he has a problem and needs it.
Our youngest doesn’t have a cell phone but he does know how to use it. He can do everything from talk to his brothers to play games on our phones. I can’t see getting him his own yet, but at the point that he starts going out on playdates, field trips, and gets to the point that he can stay home alone I do feel it might be a necessity.
What are the most important reasons to get a child a cellphone?
FREE RobotC ONLINE Classes
| Starting Monday, June 17th, our free online classes will begin for the Robotics Summer of Learning. The ROBOTC team will show you the best ways to get started using ROBOTC and answer your questions LIVE. The goals for these classes is to support you, our users, and help you earn a ROBOTC certification!
The classes and Q&A sessions will take place throughout the summer on WebEx at the times listed below. The length of the class will be based on how many questions we need to answer. VEX LEGO **Classes will be recorded and posted online after each session.**
|
Related articles
Sensory Activities (and Pinterest)
You can find just about anything on Pinterest! For children with Sensory issues
English: Red Pinterest logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Pinterest can be a treasure trove of information for parents. I’ve seen rice bins; used colored rice and children can play indoors – similar to sand but using rice and much easier to clean up. Parents can make weighted blankets with instructions found online. I even just noticed sensory salt.
For the parent just dealing with sensory issues there are also links to information about sensory issues. Pinterest is similar to Google but with pictures. You can get lost of hours wandering around. For businesses it’s a great marketing tool, and for moms it’s an endless supply of ideas (for dads I think it’s still a mystery, but they will get there)
Even now, I find myself wandering in and have to drag myself back out. I found watermelon sensory baths (that might be fun for ME), Myths about sensory issues, a mud and worm sensory sink, a sensory garden, reusing lotion, a soccer sensory bin, it goes on and on and on…. LOL, I even just found sensory painting with Goblin guts, there is something for every kids interest! Just on this one search a parent could find weeks worth of activities. Though I have to say you can’t be afraid to get your hands dirty on several of them.
Type almost anything into Pinterest and you will find amazing things! – but like I said black hole suck of time….
http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=sensory
Kindergarten.com Apps Free for the month of April!
Kindergarten.com’s philosophy:
iPhone ABA App (Photo credit: COG LOG LAB.)
At Kindergarten.com we are proud to offer you quality education apps exclusively available through itunes. All of our games are designed to work on Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
Our apps have been specifically developed using an ABA approach to provide tools and strategies that encourage creative thinking and effective language building.
My little ones speech teacher recommended these apps and let me know about them. They are free this month!
One of my favorites is:
ABA What Rhymes? “Did you ever see a goose kissing a moose, down by the bay…” Rhyming is a basic component of phonics and very important pre-reading skill that prepares young children for spelling and decoding words. Teaching rhyming words in preschool and kindergarten sets a solid base for reading comprehension later on.
I’ve reviewed ABA Flash Card before and can recommend it. The apps fall into three categories: Flash Cards, Receptive Identification, and Problem Solving.
Technology can be an excellent learning tool for children with special needs! Children are drawn to it and this is another way to turn play into learning and make it fun!
Check out these great resources also if you are in need of help obtaining resources: http://www.autism-society.org/news/funding-for-ipads.html
Related articles
About Me
I am a SAHM/WAHM of three boys ranging in age from 16 to 32. We are working on saving enough for college at the same time as dealing with school and our older independent kids. I author a few blogs, including http://teched4kids.com. I have in the past taught computer information technology classes for the local university and taught workshops for kid's in technology education besides being the Kentucky State FIRST LEGO League Championship Coordinator from 2005 to 2008. I now work as a computer consultant, run a handmade home business, and am available for workshops. Life here is always an adventure!
